Coin hoppers have been used for many years in coin operated gaming devices, such as slot machines or video poker machines, to receive coins that have been introduced into the machine by the player and to also pay out coins to the player when a win occurs. Coin hoppers have been designed in many configurations, and one of the conventional configurations uses a rotary pin wheel mechanism to feed the coins to the pay out mechanism for delivery to the coin tray. Typical of such a configuration is the coin hopper shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,942,544 (Breitenstein et al.).
Rotary pin wheel coin hoppers have also been designed with elongated or escalator chutes if the coin tray is situated at a location above the level of coin hopper. This design is most typically used for gaming devices mounted in the tables or counter tops such as in a bar. Typical of this design is the coin hopper shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,001 (Branham).
In a typical rotary pin wheel design coin hopper, the pay out mechanism is positioned tangentially to the edge of the rotary pin wheel and receives coins edgewise from the pin wheel. The pay out mechanism has the configuration of a slot and should receive one coin at a time. If the pin wheel malfunctions and attempts to feed two coins at once to the pay out mechanism, the coin hopper jams and ceases operation. An attendant must then be called to clear the coin jam. Until the attendant arrives and corrects the malfunction, the gaming device is inoperable resulting in player dissatisfaction and lost revenue to the operator.
The Breitenstein et al. patent shows what is referred to as a preconditioning wiper 16 that has a tapered and yieldable finger 17. The yieldable finger 17 is nothing more than a piece of spring steel oriented in the direction of movement of the coins on the pinwheel. This design is not effective in preventing multiple coins in a single pinwheel slot from passing by and jamming the pay out chute.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a coin hopper that minimizes, if not wholly eliminates, coin jams in the area of the rotary pin wheel and the pay out mechanism.
It is a feature of the present invention to include a guide member adjacent the pay out mechanism and a wiper member adjacent pin wheel to prevent more than one coin from being fed at a time from the pin wheel to the pay out mechanism.
It is an advantage of the present invention that coin jams are minimized, if not wholly eliminated, thereby improving player acceptance of the gaming device and increasing revenue to the operator by decreasing the amount of time that the gaming device is inoperable.